hi guys,
i've been lurking here absorbing information since sometime last november or so, about when some leftover 2010 300s showed up at Moore and Sons here in Santa Cruz and filled my heart with dark bike lust. i ordered one up over xmas, and took delivery thursday night. hot damn, what a sweet bike.
my history with bikes is long and weird. grew up down in new zealand in the 70s with a dad who made motorcycle helmets and thought it would be good character building experience to let son race mx and hare scrambles on all kinds of arcane crap like cr125 frames stuffed with xl250 motors (not recommended). moved to the states in 84, tried racing while going to college, detoured away from both college and motors for about 17 years while making a living in the mountain bike world. got back into dirt bikes in 2000, first with an old tt500 in a dick mann frame, then a VOR, then a ktm200, then an xr650r, and most lately an aprilia rxv550. safe to say that i still have emotional scars from my childhood when it comes to making rational bike choices.
took the brand new, untouched by me, 300 out to hollister yesterday, expecting it to be a long day of jetting and futzing around. ended up that the only things i did were lower the floats a hair to stop gas dribbling out the carb, moving the bars all the way forward, and backing the fork compression clickers all the way off.
after a good five hour session, i am in love. this is maybe the smoothest two stroke i have ever ridden (in terms of power delivery as well as "buzz". my old ktm 200 would regularly vibrate the odometer to pieces, and the 250 ktms, 300ktms, yz250s, cr250s i've ridden have all sent a lot more tingle through the bars and pegs than this bike), and is far and away the most forgiving and well behaved tight slippery off-camber, root and snot bike i have ever swung a leg over this side of a trials bike. rain map makes for an amazing tractor. dry map kicks some nice snarl into the middle of the revs but is still easy to read. bike revs nicely and i didn't find myself wishing for more top end anywhere (but we were riding mostly tight stuff all day).
really sweet bike. this one's a keeper! aside from slapping some handguards and a pipe/skidplate on, putting on a rear tire that actually works, and praying that the forks loosen up a bit so i don't keep getting blisters, i'm happy to ride this thing just the way it is until the wheels fall off. thanks for educating me and steering me toward this bike!
i've been lurking here absorbing information since sometime last november or so, about when some leftover 2010 300s showed up at Moore and Sons here in Santa Cruz and filled my heart with dark bike lust. i ordered one up over xmas, and took delivery thursday night. hot damn, what a sweet bike.
my history with bikes is long and weird. grew up down in new zealand in the 70s with a dad who made motorcycle helmets and thought it would be good character building experience to let son race mx and hare scrambles on all kinds of arcane crap like cr125 frames stuffed with xl250 motors (not recommended). moved to the states in 84, tried racing while going to college, detoured away from both college and motors for about 17 years while making a living in the mountain bike world. got back into dirt bikes in 2000, first with an old tt500 in a dick mann frame, then a VOR, then a ktm200, then an xr650r, and most lately an aprilia rxv550. safe to say that i still have emotional scars from my childhood when it comes to making rational bike choices.
took the brand new, untouched by me, 300 out to hollister yesterday, expecting it to be a long day of jetting and futzing around. ended up that the only things i did were lower the floats a hair to stop gas dribbling out the carb, moving the bars all the way forward, and backing the fork compression clickers all the way off.
after a good five hour session, i am in love. this is maybe the smoothest two stroke i have ever ridden (in terms of power delivery as well as "buzz". my old ktm 200 would regularly vibrate the odometer to pieces, and the 250 ktms, 300ktms, yz250s, cr250s i've ridden have all sent a lot more tingle through the bars and pegs than this bike), and is far and away the most forgiving and well behaved tight slippery off-camber, root and snot bike i have ever swung a leg over this side of a trials bike. rain map makes for an amazing tractor. dry map kicks some nice snarl into the middle of the revs but is still easy to read. bike revs nicely and i didn't find myself wishing for more top end anywhere (but we were riding mostly tight stuff all day).
really sweet bike. this one's a keeper! aside from slapping some handguards and a pipe/skidplate on, putting on a rear tire that actually works, and praying that the forks loosen up a bit so i don't keep getting blisters, i'm happy to ride this thing just the way it is until the wheels fall off. thanks for educating me and steering me toward this bike!
